“Nice meeting you, too.” I stood rooted to the ground until he disappeared into the crowd, and then I made my way back over to the bench.

“So?” Carter signaled to the bartender to close his tab. “How’d it go?”

“Good, really good. We only spoke a few words to each other, but he’s going to call me tomorrow.” I felt like a giddy little girl. “I literally felt something when he touched me—something strong.”

“It’s a pretty bad sign if he’s already given you an STD.”

“You are so terrible!” I laughed. “Did you find any future victims while I was gone?”

“Within the span of two minutes? No, but I realized we need to get you a few more dates tonight if we’re going to guarantee that you get laid at some point this summer.” He set a tip on the counter and clasped my hand, pulling me through the crowd and outside. “We need to go to a few more bars.”

“What? Why? I just got a guy, a guy who has already promised to call me tomorrow and made me feel a genuine spark when he only touched my hand. Did you not hear any of what I said back there?”

“That was one guy, Ari.” He shook his head. “One. Who knows if he’ll really call you tomorrow? You trust him just because he said he would?”

“Well, yeah…”

“So, you’ll believe anything a complete stranger says to you?”

“There was a spark, Carter…A genuine he-is-definitely-going-to-call-me spark.”

“You need at least five other options.” He unlocked the doors to his car and motioned for me to get in. “That’s the biggest problem you have now. You need to actually date around and stop pinning all your hopes on the first guy that you supposedly feel a spark with.”

“I don’t always do that…I at least wait until he kisses me first.” I laughed. “I’m a pretty good judge of kisses, you know. I can tell a lot about a guy from the way he uses his mouth.”

“I’m sure you can.” He revved up the car and sped down a few blocks toward a more popular bar. “You have stars in your eyes right now over a potential phone call. I’d hate to see what you look like after you get kissed.”

“I’ll record it one day and send you the video.”

“Please don’t.” He looked over at me, laughing as he found a parking spot. “If it’s anything like you looked after meeting that guy in there, I never want to know. Now, get out of the car before you start staring into space, so I can show you how to get exactly what your pussy needs.”

“Really, though? Have I ever told you how deep you are?”

“No.” He smiled as he got out of the car. “But that’s only because you and I have never fucked…”

Fifth Grade

Dear Carter,

I don’t care what you say about Dawson Meade the 3rd. He will be my first kiss and he will NOT care about my braces. He will fall in love with me and ask me to be his girlfriend. And then you will be jealous because you will still not know what it fills like to be kissed.

I’ll let you know how it goes after school.

Sincerely kissed,

Arizona

Dear Arizona,

I do not care about your first kiss, but you should know that Dawson is lame and he will kiss anyone. I saw him kissing hisself in the bathroom mirror last week. Trust me, he will care about your braces. They are still not pretty.

And I will not be jealous because I’m getting my first kiss from Rachel Ryan today. She said we will do it like the French.

I will let YOU know how it goes after school.

Sincerely FIRST kissed,

Carter

Arizona balled up my note and rolled her eyes at me as the bell rang.

I closed my notebook and followed her to her locker, where we always met after school.

“Are you ever going to get those braces out of your mouth, Ari?”

“Why do you care?”

“Because I don’t want to hear you cry when no one but Dawson wants to be your boyfriend…It’s because of your braces.”

I’d thought they couldn’t get any worse, but sometimes she stuck colored rubber bands in them so she could eat. Sometimes I told her she should just starve.

“Did you and Rachel pick a meet up spot?” she asked.

“Yeah, we’re going to meet at the tree outside the gym. What about you and Dawson?”

“We’re going to do it in the parking lot behind the football team sign,” she said. “Do you really think he’ll care about my braces?”

“Depends….Do you really think Rachel will care about my hair?”

“What’s wrong with your hair?”

“Last week, you told me it was itchy.”

“It was itchy.” She closed her locker. “Because you fell asleep on my shoulder.”

“Oh yeah…” I remembered. We’d both got detention after school last week for passing notes during science class. And, as usual, whenever we got sent there together, I used her shoulder as a pillow.

“Ari, do you think we should…” I paused. “Do you think we should…”

“Do I think we should what?”

“Like…Since we’re both getting kissed today, do you think we should test out the kiss first? On each other? That way we can be honest and fix whatever needs to be fixed?”

“I was actually going to ask you the same thing…” She let out a deep breath. “If we do that, then we both won’t be so nervous when it’s time.”

“Okay, cool. Follow me. “I motioned for her to follow me down the hallway. I looked both ways to make sure no one was coming, and then I opened the door to the janitor’s closet and pulled her inside.

She set her books down on a ladder and I locked the door.

“So…” She looked really nervous. “How should we start?”

“Well, first…” I stood in front of her and made sure our shoes were touching. Then I did the thing I always saw my dad do whenever he kissed my mom—tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.

“And now, we’ll kiss on three.” I cleared my throat. “One…”

She shut her eyes and grabbed my hands.

“Two…”

“Wait! I forgot something!” She pulled a tube of lip gloss out of her pocket and glided it across her lips. “Now, you can count.”

Ugh! Girls…

I rolled my eyes and started over. “Okay, starting again…One…Two…” I shut my eyes and leaned forward. “Three…”

We pressed our lips together and let the seconds pass, waiting. Waiting for something.

It was nothing like the movies. Nothing was happening at all.

“Um…How long are we supposed to stand like this, Carter?” Ari asked, her lips still touching mine.

“I don’t know…Maybe five more seconds?”

“Okay…Cool…”

I softly counted to five and stepped back.

“So…” she said. “Did you notice my braces? Were my lips too glossy?”

“No to the braces, but make sure you put on the gloss before you get to him. How about me? When my forehead touched yours, was it itchy?”